Do you feel that the Mumsnet demographic is more…..

[CurlewKate]

……left leaning or right leaning? I think it is more right leaning-AIBU?

I’m not voting because your question isn’t clear regarding the vote. Not sure what surrogacy has to do with this either?

I’ve also noticed a shift to the right and goady posts which appear anti-feminists.

Regarding the state of debate, over the previous three pages there have been quite a few insults (wokerati etc). It’s becoming like American forums and that’s quite depressing. I suspect there are posters testing the ground to see how much they can push right views IMO (tin hat on).

Oddly, despite hanging out on the FWR a lot, I think it is still very L-leaning. The responses to threads about the impact of VAT in private school fees, on threads by SAHM’s, etc all scream R-wing to me. And even on the FWR board it’s fairly split because feminism/GI etc is not a L v R issue. Lots of R wing posters on there and lots of very centrist ones like me.

I was responding to the previous posters/s who said FWR was right-wing because women there have issues with surrogacy and 'transwomen'. I am

What makes me think you have what views? I didn't ascribe any views to you. I said people who don't think women should have protected spaces etc are not taking a left-wing position on women's rights.

I enormously dislike all of Trump, Farage, Musk, Putin and Nazis, since you ask.

Where are you taking that from?

I would say most are centre but there are some better very vocal far left on here who are found concentrated on certain boards, often very obnoxious and aggressive

See we agree.

Agree on what?

Huh? You are the OP
Why are you talking about yourself in the 3rd person and sitting on your hands from joining in the conversation you started?!

Have you read the thread? It has been explained that OP is referring to a separate thread about gay men and surrogacy. Not this one.

I think it's becoming more difficult to classify left leaning and right leaning. It's possible to be socially conservative and economically left wing and it's possible to be socially liberal and economically conservative. People are becoming less likely to buy into a package of beliefs and opinions. It looks like overall MN has moved to the right but I suspect people or bots are on here attempting to influence opinion.

That is not a left wing position. Nor is it a right of centre view. Not everything is polarised along political lines. It is foolish and naive to think that is the case, and constricts pragmatic, useful political debate.

I would describe my own political position as being right of centre to various subtle degrees, but I would absolutely agree with what you say about women's spaces. I refuse to be put into a box politically, and go a lot of trouble to read from different sources and research things where I cannot readily reach an opinion.

Unfortunately I think my position is increasingly rare, as most people live in an internet bubble where they only get opinions that reflect their own bounced back at them. That doesn't help anybody in grappling with the issues of the day, and I think various political parties use that to their own ends.

Zanzara I think that taking a view that women should sacrifice their needs to meet men's wants is a right-wing position of women's primary function being to service mens desires.

That doesn't mean all people who hold that view are left wing, but that position is left, IMO.

Indeed @twistyizzyour written posts can reveal many things about the author. The few examples I used were to illustrate the broader shift in posters I have observed in recent times. Not just changes in left/right leaning.

My Rachel Reeves reference links into how uncomfortable I feel when other women call her “Rachel from Accounts”. By all means criticise her record as Chancellor but using that nickname is uncalled for.

I chose my original examples to highlight how I believe that Mumsnet has changed. Yes, there probably has been a shift to the right and this is likely in line with society as a whole. But this was originally a website/forum set up by women to support other women through the struggles of parenthood. Mumsnet has evolved over the years and is now much broader than that. But in that evolution, we have lost something that was really important.

All of the above is simply my opinion. I believe it to be true but that doesn’t make it true in the eyes of others.

"But this was originally a website/forum set up by women to support other women through the struggles of parenthood" how does left/right impact on that? Answer, it doesn't.
It's just interesting that the examples you used.
The UK has never been a specific left wing country, more like small c conservative however MN has always tended to be urban liberal left leaning. Many centre/right posters have been mocked, abused on here especially during Brexit and culminating with the GE etc when the name calling was on every thread + viscious. Since then it is moving more centre/right in that those posters feel more comfortable expressing their opinions now.

Maybe you should be less of a snowflake? I'm not exactly at your door screaming in your face, I'm responding to your whingeing on an open forum that the 'wokerati' (which I guess I'd translate as thinking people) label your views far right. Hey, if you're far right, that's fine with me, no need to be too embarrassed to own it.

I'm assuming Reform/Truss voter...?

Not a big pearl wearer, by the way.

Neither.

There are noisy people at either end of the scale who start multiple threads where the Opening Post appears to be far left or far right, but a lot of the replies seem fairly balanced.

Plus, and I assume I can't be the only one, if I read the OP and it's too left or too right and boarding on bonkers (according to me) then I back right out of it without posting, on the basis that anything I say against the OP will probably be met with abuse, and I can't be arsed with it.

Also, I think a lot depends on the flavour of Government. A lot of very left posts were to be expected when it was a tired Conservative government. We now have a tired labour government (who knew it would happen so quickly) so it's not surprising that right wing posts are cropping up.

So I think that the noisy radicals are few and far between at either end, a most people sit in the middle of the Venn and are generally quite rational and can see the other point of view, even if they don't agree with it, without self combusting.

When I first joined 16 years ago, gently lefty liberal middle class I thought. Now I am horrified by how fast it has become so right leaning. I am not in the UK so don't know if this is representative of UK society generally. If it is, that is really concerning. Very dangerous.

My last vote was Labour, since you are asking. Only as a protest vote/tactical to have the SNP Wokerati ousted.

Generally a Conservative voter that realises Reform etc are not the answer. No experience in government, and prone to soundbites and grabbing headlines, however, still better than the apologist for Middle Eastern terror groups that think I can be a woman with a willie.....

Now, off you fuck, I won't be answering you again.

Left of centre at the moment. I’m not, I’m a Tory voter (not the last election where I voted Green) but I read what’s written and empathise with the many points of view. If I American I would be a Democrat. On Mumsnet I must travel low in case I’m accused of having cloven hooves and a pitchfork.

The extremes cancel each other out too much, I think when there are valid points on both sides.

I believe in smaller Government, absolute support for the vulnerable, free trade, pro choice. I think the public services are underfunded, but badly managed. I think the present government cannot find it’s arse with a map on issues which are causing the worst in human traits to manifest.I voted Remain, but listen to those that didn’t and think in many cases (not all) I understand their point, especially the further from London you get.

I think that's rubbish. I think many left wing organisations - the Labour party and the unions spring instantly to mind - are some of the most misogynistic users of women's energy there are.

Remind me when the Labour party had their last female leader. Talking the talk is not the same as walking the walk. Moreover, Labour and the Lib Dems constantly tie themselves in knots to try not to have to define what a women is. They are absolutely happy to hang women out to dry time and time again, whenever basic women's rights come into conflict with the interests of any other (male) group.

Do not be fooled. Always judge what people do, not what they say.

Yep they are certainly all popping out the woodwork and revealing themselves to be far right racists. It’s disgusting.

I do think we ought to be careful using party leaders as an indicator of a political party’s level of misogyny. Yes, the Conservatives have had more women leaders, but if you look at the time and the circumstances in which they became leaders there is more nuanced. Thatcher, for example, was never intended by the party grandees to be leader-she grabbed the opportunity and ran with it as the wheels fell off the process. Apart from her, women conservative leaders tend to be place holders in bad time. They are victims of the glass cliff! The Labour Party’s record is obviously execrable. But the Conservatives have nothing to be particulary proud of. They’ll have a man again by the next election.

That’s so true. I was interested in feminism initially in the 1980s and I don’t recognise the type of poster who posts on here one bit. Suspiciously right leaning.

(On the feminism board, i
mean)